Block 46 Barrister's Block - Legal Battles

From this week's story on the Grandmother's Choice blog we read about the struggle women had to become lawyers/barristers even well into the 1900s.

The block as shown on the GC blog page is just a quarter/single section of what is more usually known as the Barrister's Block. I decided to make the more authentic block which of course meant more time and cutting and fussing with seams.

 As you'll know from previous posts I am paying attention to earlier blocks in an effort to try to use each fabric in at least two blocks. This floral print, chosen to represent the lady barristers, is one of the few I have allowed in that depart just a little from my chartreuse/red-violet color scheme. Perhaps for that reason it has only been used once previously in block 26. I also wanted to try to avoid another block with a big piece of one fabric which the one quarter block version would have necessitated.

Another change is that I decided to switch around where I placed my repeated "background" fabric - instead of positioning it in the expected border of the block I made it the central portion to give a light focus there.

With only three more blocks to go I'm not sure that all the fabrics are going to make an appearance in more than one block but I will be trying to do that when I select fabrics.

Years ago when we lived in England we found this old cartoon. My husband had a skeptical view of the importance of lawyers/barristers and had the print framed to hang in his office. Barrister is a term not often heard here in the USA but in the Commonwealth countries is frequently used to denote the lawyers who plead cases before the high court hence this print is particularly apt (and, you'll note, does not seem to depict a lady barrister).

Next weekend I will be away on a three day quilt retreat so I am not sure that I will get my block done and posted before Sunday night. I hope, as compensation, to spend some time working on the sashing of the blocks for this quilt.

Good gracious, I have only just realized that I do not have a working name for this quilt. That is very unlike me as I ordinarily name my quilts as I begin to work on them. I better put in some serious thinking time.

When do you name your quilts and do you remember to then label them with that name and your details?